October 9, 2002	Wednesday	Sha’aban 2, 1423

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BUSAN, Oct 8: Pakistan were assured of two bronze medals as Asghar Ali Shah and Mehrullah breezed to the semifinals of the Asian Games boxing championship after beating their respective rivals Tuesday.

While Asghar and Mehrullah kept hopes alive for possible silver and gold, Kashif Mumtaz, another boxer from Pakistan, failed to win against Thai opponent.

Pakistan gained first success of the day in the light welter weight category in which Asghar defeated Philippines Brin Romeo on points 31:15 in the fourth round bout.

Asghar dominated with forceful punching and his Filipino opponent found it hard to avoid the punishment.

The encouraging performance of boxers was a sigh of relief for the Pakistani officials after the exit of three boxers Mazhar Hussain, Imran Hafeez and Abid Ali in the preliminary rounds.

Mehr raced through victory just in seconds, into the third round by knocking down Chinese Taipei’s An Chun Chung with a fury of power, in featherweight fight.

In the first two rounds, Mehr displayed extra ordinary technique and game plan and his most of the punches accurately targeted Chung who was inferior in all department of the game. Mehr won 20:5.

In 71 kgs bout Pakistan’s Kashif failed to face a brave challenge from Thailand’s Suriya Prasathinphiai whose deadly punches forced the referee Muhammad Nur Potiyev to stop the bout, hardly two minutes into the first round.